Why The Supreme Court Should Take On Political Corruption In Wisconsin

January 01, 1970 | The New Yorker | Opinion

Next week, the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider whether it will hear an appeal of a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that, last year, halted a criminal investigation and ordered the destruction of all the evidence it gathered. The case is about the seemingly peripheral issue of judicial recusal. But it brings together two of the biggest disrupters of American democracy today: the surge, after the Citizens United decision struck down limits on independent spending, of private influence in elections; and the politicization of the highest courts in many states. For the past eight years, Wisconsin has been a laboratory testing the toxicity of this combination.